Commentary
When it comes to the creation of powerful platforms, China is best known for TikTok, a highly problematic app that stands accused of being a Trojan horse for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). But WeChat is China’s most sophisticated creation by far.
In many ways, WeChat is a super-app.
With more than 1 billion users, WeChat is what you get when you throw Twitter, Instagram, Substack, Uber, and PayPal into a big tech blender. Via the app’s “mini programs,” a user can do just about anything on WeChat; he or she can message friends, order food or a cab, pay bills, write articles, book flights, and so forth. The options are endless.
However, as
I’ve shown before, the app is incredibly dangerous. In many ways, it’s a spy tool for the CCP. In fact, according to Bloomberg, WeChat is the CCP’s most
beloved spy tool. That’s bad news for the
19 million users in the United States and
hundreds of thousands of users in the UK. In the United States, the state of Montana recently banned WeChat, TikTok, and a number of other dangerous social media applications
tied to “foreign adversaries.” Human Rights Watch has
sounded the alarm on WeChat, warning that the “everything app” poses a danger to users across the world. But, for some peculiar reason, this hasn’t stopped Elon Musk from heaping praise on the
biometric-harvesting app.
Last year, the enigmatic billionaire, who has a history of
praising the CCP and
encouraging Taiwan to give in to China’s demands for unification,
called WeChat “an excellent app” and “a good model” for other tech platforms.
“We don’t have anything like that,” Musk said, before suggesting that “such an app would be really useful” in countries other than China.
Now, it seems, Musk wants to create a WeChat-like app of his own. On May 12, after appointing Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter, he wrote in a
tweet that he was “looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app.” Musk has been talking about X
for months.
This prompts the question: Is Elon Musk trying to bring WeChat to America? Some commentators
think that he is; their reasons for thinking this are grounded in reality. After all, Musk is attempting to build an “everything app,” and the only actual “everything app” in existence is WeChat. Although Musk seems like a thoroughly decent guy, he’s one of the most prominent people on the planet. We must be allowed to ask difficult questions.
Also, with Musk, as the investigative journalist Whitney Webb
has highlighted, appearances could be mightily deceptive. The Musk presented to the public and the Musk behind closed doors appear to be two very different people, she argues. Webb has discussed Musk’s ties to China, as well as his history with
Jeffrey Epstein, in great detail. She’s a thorough researcher, and her warnings should be taken seriously.
When it comes to Musk’s ties to China, the evidence is irrefutable. After all,
tens of thousands of Teslas are made in China every month. Moreover, Tencent Holdings, the company behind WeChat, has a
sizable stake in Tesla.
The idea of X should trouble any reader who values the idea of privacy. Considering data are very much the new oil, an individual or organization in charge of an “everything app” would have access to an inordinate amount of “oil.”
As experts
at Netacea, a cybersecurity company based in the UK, have noted, an app such as X opens users up to a world of potential pain. That’s because privacy laws in a number of Western countries are, for lack of a better word, anemic. In the United States, for example, user data can easily be shared with third parties. Last year, Facebook turned user data over to U.S. law enforcement agencies, who then proceeded to
prosecute a teenager for allegedly seeking an illegal abortion.
Additionally, as the Netacea specialists emphasized, “having all your information in one super app may make it even easier for law enforcement agencies and governments to keep citizens under surveillance.”
Also, why should we trust Musk with our data? It
recently emerged that Tesla had reportedly failed to protect a staggering 100 gigabytes of confidential data. Leaked by a whistleblower, the data contained Musk’s Social Security number, the salaries of employees, and the bank details of customers. With an “everything app,” used by tens of millions of people, a similar type of leak would be absolutely catastrophic.
Finally, it’s important to remember that a super-app such as WeChat is designed for convenience. However, in the world of tech, convenience always comes at a cost.
Imagine if hackers were to gain access to your super-app account. Everything from your private messages and photos to your bank account details would be exposed. These are just some of the issues that a super-app could create. Musk wants to make X a reality, but we have every right to ask if we actually want to be part of his tech-fueled fantasy. I, for one, don’t.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
